10/23/2004 - Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom [Archive]

fluttergirl

10-26-2004, 12:23 AM

Well. How to begin? We (my friend and me) showed up a little late, we had trouble with the one way streets in downtown. That was fun. But we got there at 5:30, and the doors opened at 7:00. The wait was excruciating, cuz you could hear everyone warming up. Then the whole line had to turn around, and the line respect you had in Atlanta? Definitely not here, most of the end of the line cut, so we ended up behind bout 30 people instead of 10 or 15. I’m so disappointed with the people from Dallas—before we ever got in, the manager or whoever was in charge, had to go stand on the stage, and said, “We’re hearing rumors that when these doors open, some people are going to rush them. Well, no you’re not. Because you will get your ass kicked and you will go to jail”, along with a five minute speech. Anyways, it took FOREVER, but we finally were let in (the crowd was mildly more behaved than they had been), and I found myself right in front of where Brian would be, three rows back. That quickly became halfway between Brian/Myles, in the first/second row (it was packed, and I was in between two people—as the music went on I would go from the first to the second). Submersed, of course was first….
What can I say? Absolutely floored…they sounded awesome in concert….Somehow, I haven’t gotten their CD…that will soon be rectified, LOL.
Eric is amazing, and Donald has a wonderful personality that you can get the feel for, even when he’s on stage, even though you could barely hear his singing over the music(then again, I was right in front of an amp—my jeans were literally shaking around my shoes….), and the crowd. Kelan and TJ were awesome, the whole band had this wonderful vibe to them. The crowd was majorly pumped up by the time they got off-stage.
I finally understand what y’all were talking about when you said that Crossfade just didn’t mesh. I think theoretically they go fine, but the people who had just been headbanging and jumping up and down were standing with their arms crossed for almost the entire time, occasionally bobbing their heads. I still love them, and they WERE good, just going after Submersed? I dunno…..
Finally, finally, finally…Alter Bridge. We had seen them peeking out a little window behind the stage before they came out, and the crowd freaked out. The guy next to/in front of me was like “I just want to touch Myles, even if he doesn’t want me to, I’m gonna”, and I couldn’t help but to think of Summer.
The guys finally came out, and before they even picked up guitar/bass/sticks/assorted instruments, it was worth it. Just *seeing* them, literally being close enough to touch them, was amazing. They were all grinning before they even started, and you knew they were having a good time. I honestly don’t remember the set list, but they started with ODR, I *think*. Mark was incredible, the lucky asses who had gotten to that side of the stage were going insane. (Jealous, me? No, never….). Myles, poor baby, his voice was so straining form being sick that when he talked, he squeaked. He was like “I’m hitting puberty. Well, maybe some day I will, then I can be like all the other kids(shoots an evil glance at Mark.)”.
A few songs later, after Broken Wings and FTR, “Look at that guy, (Mark), the reason why he’s so good is cuz he’s always in his room, shredding. Well, and lifting weights. That’s all he does. Guitar, weight, guitar, weights”. I’m kinda waiting, at this point, for Mark to say something, but he’s just smiling and shaking his head.
Then, before Metalingus, they make this big deal about the world’s loudest amp. Some techies come out and set it up, put all these lights to point at it, and it’s about the size of a CD. If that. So they play, and Myles is like, “Well Mark…(huge smile), your amp there is kinda small….”
Mark finally steps up to the mike, “Hey, you wanna talk about a small amp…”
I mean, come on. What band goes up on stage and sits there and jokes sorund with each other this much while putting on such a friggin awesome show?
In another song (totally escapes me now) Myles picked up one of those lights, and pointed it out to the crowd. When the song was over, he was like, “can someone turn on the house lights? I can’t see how many people we have here”. They did. He made the completely accurate statement that we were packed in like sardines.
They play another song (SMS?), and Brian hops up onto two of those huge, well thingees, I dunno wut those things are but, yeah. I got a pic, when I get them developed, I’ll post it. Flip was awesome, but I had problems getting pictures of him, Myles kept dancing around with the microphone stand, then setting it down right in my line of sight.
Throughout the whole thing, Michael is sitting off to the left, either recording or taking pictures. Then they tell us their special guest is about to come out ( Donald form Submersed, yea!), and Myles was shredding it up with Mark for the cover song. Now, here, I almost cried. Myles f’n Kennedy, and Mark f’n Tremonti. On stage. Shredding together, taunting each other with riffs. Literally inches apart, and about 2 ½ feet from me. Guess what? I ran out of f’n film. :mad1: I was SO upset. Then I realized that I had forgotten, in my excitement, to save pics for after the show. Whoopsies. Then, after the cover was over, they played OYE. Now, the crowd had been loud before. On Broken Wings, you hadn’t been able to hear Myles at all. But. I was completely surrounded by amps and speakers. The music was still loud. For OYE? I could *barely* hear the music over the crowd. Mostly just Brian, and mostly cuz he was standing right in front of me. It was insane.
So, the show’s over. We’re wandering around, determined to find the bus. We see two white ones, figuring they’re Submersed and Crossfades, wander off to find AB’s. Finally do. We’re standing. We’re at one end of the line. So we’re either first or last, right? But, oh yeah. I don’t have a camera. So we go real quick off to 7-11, across a very crowded street. We’re on our way back, and you hear this little mini-eruption, not necessarily loud, just noisey. We cross the street, and everyone who had been sitting where we were was standing up. Myles had come out. ON OUR SIDE OF THE LINE. Man, that sucked. So, we make our way down to the end of the line, not wanting to cut.
Now, here, I have to stop. And apologize to Summer. I have teased you SO much about Myles. I was completely in awe. I couldn’t even say anything. Luckily my far less awe-struck friend shoved me into him and took a picture. I SO wanted to ask him how Atlanta went, and if he was ever gonna do the whole solo CD thing, what it was going to sound like if he did. What came out was…”Thank you so much” :o
Start the heckling, Summer, I deserve it.
He looked so tired, and he came out a good twenty minutes before the other guys did. He wandered off to the bus, and we sat back down, and got ready to chill for another hour, or however long it took the guys. It was luckily cut short by Flip, who is, well, surprisingly short. Then again he was standing next some pretty tall guys. Anyways. I asked him if he had ever gotten his new tattoo for ODR, and he said he’d gotten some work done on his right arm, and gotten his daughter’s initials across his back with wings ( let’s hear it, the girls around me there did it, awwwwwwwwwww :D ). Somehow height came up, and he and the security guy who was kinda following him started talking bout this guy Dio…Flip said they had his stuff on the bus, and had been listening to it.
Next up was Brian, who I didn’t really talk much to, I almost completely missed him, he looked like a couple of the guys out there (they all had the same hair), and he had been almost to the bus, but kindly stopped for a pic as well. Finally Mark came out. This man was ambushed. I don’t even know where half the people had come form, cuz I hadn’t seen them before. Some lucky, lucky kid got his PRS signed by Mark, who told them bout Gibson suing them. I swear. I have never seen so many dropped jaws and shinig eyes. These were upwards of 16 year old guys, and they looked like two year olds let loose in a candy store. I finally got to steal a pic of Mark, and tada! The perfect night. :D
It was funny though, cuz by the time we got to him, almost everyone had left. During the entire time, getting progressively worse, were, umm, we’ll call them ladies, walking past, drunk and drunker. The crowd had thinned out a little, and Mark looks and me and my friend by ourselves, and just says, “Ummm, you make sure you get home safe, ok?” It was so sweet.
So. We finally headed home. It took us thirty minutes to get on the highway that we had been under the whole time, ( I hate one way streets :mad1: ), but we got there. It had been my friends first concert, and AB was the first rock CD she’s ever owned. I have successfully converted her. She loves them. And the music. But on the way home, she just looked at me and said “and they’re so pretty!” I cracked up.
The guys are headed out to AZ now, and I’m already trying to figure out when they’ll be in town again.

Completely awesome show, awesome experience. :cool: